Earlier today, with a grand total of 21 miles on our car since Midas charged us $690.00 for a brake job, Amy & Chloe were out locally running an errand when the brakes completely failed upon approaching a rather busy intersection.
Amy had about .00009 seconds to decide between smacking into a group of 30 people walking across the crosswalk or jump the curb and put the car up onto the sidewalk and possibly mash 12 other people walking there...
As fate, skill and a very cool, level-headed wife would have it- she picked the curb/sidewalk combo WHILE throwing the car into neutral AND jerking the emergency brake up. The car skidded up onto the sidewalk, scared the absolute shit out of a bunch of iPod wearing franken-yuppies who then proceeded to start calling her names while under the assumption that she was some kind of bad driver who wasn't paying attention [they quickly chilled when they heard what had happened]... all of which inspired Chloe to comment, "Wow Mom! Lets do THAT again!!".
A certain B-flat Midas manager is hopefully having one really cozy, warm, happy, fuzzy, cuddly, fucking nights sleep tonight, because at 7am tomorrow he's going to have me at his shop when he shows up to unlock the door... and the poor bastard better have some really amazingly brilliant answers as to why this happened as well as one World Class tap-dancing routine for me... like motherfucking Bojangles.
I get REALLY pissed off about once every 6 years... I mean pissed like "Mike Tyson-in-a-bad-mood-biting-off-Holyfield's-ear-insanely-pissed", pissed off... this is one of those times.
Ya know, I don't think I'd personally ever sue anyone, but doing such a bad brake job that the brakes fail when you are driving around with your kid seems like the type of thing that should be brought to light in court. I'd get me down to another mechanic who could verify it was a shoddy brake job, and then I would call a lawyer.
Jeeesh!
Posted by: Paul Cooley | August 22, 2005 at 09:52 PM
Ditto on what Paul said. (except everybody should sue somebody, sometime---at least once in a lifetime). You have a case, but how much are you gonna get if no one got hurt? Sucks, but no one will probably take it.
As for the "Mike Tyson" pissed off kind of thing..........well...........everytime I look at my ex-wife!!!
Posted by: Adam B. | August 23, 2005 at 03:56 PM
So, what did the Midas man say after you released his throat?
Posted by: George H | August 23, 2005 at 07:01 PM
Things went as well as could be expected given the circumstances... I showed up, the manager looked pleased to see me until he knew why I was back and then he acted very uncomfortable.
He had a ton of words as to what and how it all happened... far fewer for why it happened and none when I would repeatedly tell him-
a) How fucked off I was
b) How lucky things turned out that my wife and daughter as well as all the folks on foot got by on one hell of a serious scare, only.
c) That I am seriously considering retaining an attorney.
and...
d) That BESIDES fixing the problem I better receive some type of financial refund for my time, trouble and everything else.
He said he would call when things were fixed... at 5pm he sheepishly called and said they needed it overnight and that it would be ready in the morning.
So, I guess it's a "To Be Continued... " kinda deal. Only real satisfaction for me so far was the 6 people that walked into the Midas shop while I was there and to each and everyone of them I would tell them-in great detail-what happened to my wife and daughter as a result of Midas' shit-assed work, and 5 of the 6 looked at the manager and told him he ought to be ashamed [or similar] and, one by one, they each walked out without getting any work done [the 6th one just pretended to not hear any of it... hope they don't get in or cause an accident as a result of shoddy work]. Manager didn't even have the fucking cantaloupes to look at me while this was happening... good thing too, because I would have reached across the counter and bitch slapped him repeatedly.
Posted by: Scott | August 24, 2005 at 01:20 AM
Do you have a final resolution yet?
Posted by: George H | August 25, 2005 at 10:16 AM
Yep, got the car back today. The reason for the failure was a "leaking caliper" which allowed some air up into the line. In the last 2 days they ordered a new one, installed it and it failed immediately... ordered another, before installing it they say they noticed the threads were stripped... next one-apparently & so far-was a charm, as the brakes are working.
As to satisfaction: financially apeaking...
They knocked off half of the original labor charge and apologized as a starting point. They wanted to refund JUST the price of the 2nd tow back to their shop... I said that was a fine place to start BUT that things would go MUCH further back than just that.
After much "ahhhh", "urrrrrr" and "really, ya gotta understand... my hands are tied on all this... " bullshit, I explained that my uncle is a Superior Court Judge for Los Angeles County in Los Angeles, California and that one of his "many' friends include the Attorney General for the state of New Jersey. I then explained my position from the standpoint that many state Attorney General's offices listen VERY carefully to allegations of fraud & public safety from Joe Q. Public... that said, could you imagine how closely they would listen to a professional colleague who has a nephew whose wife & very young and innocent daughter were placed into great danger through the incompetence of a national auto-repair chain?
He asked for a few minutes to make a call and then offered all of our labor charges back.
I'm satisfied... I'll never go back to another Midas EVER again, but I'm satisfied!
-Me
Posted by: Scott | August 25, 2005 at 05:07 PM
Bummer about the brakes, but these things can happen. That's why I try and not let anyone else work on my cars. Remember for next time, if you push the pedal it goes to the floor, PUMP THE PEDAL! Unless there is zero fluid left in the system, the car will stop. Just a friendly FYI.
Posted by: Chris | August 25, 2005 at 05:59 PM
The exact same thing happend to me,but it took them 4 times and 820 dollars later for me to get my lawyer on their ass...conclusion
I HAVE A FAR SUPERIOR BRAKE SYSTEM(FREE OF CHARGE) NOW ON A CAR THAT I BOUGHT FOR 1 FUCKING DOLLAR HAHAHAHAHA TAKE THAT MIDAS!!!
AND THE FUNNY PART IS I HAD THE FUCKING MIDAS DISTRICT MANAGER DRIVE THE CAR TO SEARS TO LET SEARS DO THE BRAKE JOB,AND MIDAS HAD TO PAY SEARS FOR EVERYTHING BRAKE RELATED THAT I DESIRED. FOR A GRAND TOTAL FOR $1885.63 AND I GOT MY MONEY BACK FOR THE SHIT THAT MIDAS DID TO MY CAR.
I had Sears put on ceramic pads,oversized calipers,triple slotted racing rotors,braided steel lines,new master cylinder,racing power brake boost...etc.. all on a $1 1995 Geo prizm that needed for cheap transportion
MIDAS!!! PIMP MY RIDE!!! HAHAHA YA'LL GOT FUCKED
Posted by: Patrick Lunsford | December 21, 2005 at 08:26 AM
Oh yeah, everyone around here knows that MIDAS SUCKS. They suck so much ass that their lips are permanently chapped. They charge huge bucks and use the cheapest, junkiest GD parts imaginable. Their brake pads wear out in 6 months, and you're damned lucky if the entire brake system does not fail altogether. They even refused once to do an alignment because I had the nerve to install a performance handling package on my Mustang. The manager actually told me that "we don't serve people like you." Well, excuse the HELL out of me! No problemo! I gave the money to someone else, and they did a fine job with it. Midas will NEVER, EVER get ONE RED CENT from me for the duration of my existance. They are a pimple on the Earth, and I'd love to see them go out of business altogether.
Posted by: Griswold Carbunkle | March 08, 2007 at 06:35 PM
So if a shop (in this case Midas) installs a defective part that they did not manufacture, or makes a mistake (which happens when working with human beings) does that give someone the right to STEAL from that shop. The guy with the GEO, (who I personnaly believe is lying) and his story about having them upgrade his brakes at Sears because of the failure to properly work is just a plain THIEF. Yes get your money back for the bad repair, YES get compensated for your time. But getting something different paid for by the big dep pocket corporation? Through lying and deception. How proud of this are you?
If I managed the shop and someone came in and had a problem like this, I would apologize, repair the car, pay any incidental expenses, probably refund some of the charges to "compensate" for your inconvenience (and thats all it was as nobody got hurt). If you bitch slapped me or got abusive however, you would be talking to MY lawyer.
If an accident happened you wouldn't even have gotten into my shop. You would be talking with my ;lawyer and insurer IMMEDIATELY.
I do NOT work for Midas but I have managed auto shops in the past.
Posted by: Gary | March 13, 2007 at 03:07 PM